Elizabeth Truell
English 4: Diagnostic Writing

Some high schools require for their students to take a standardized test in order to receive a diploma. However, I don’t agree with the idea of having one test determine if you pass or fail high school. It’s weird to think that your performance on one particular test on one particular day is the only factor in you getting your diploma. If passing that test was the only way to get your diploma, I wouldn’t see a reason for doing well in any of my courses in high school. It should all be collective. There should be many factors going into whether a student receives their diploma or not. It should be decided from your grades in courses during high school rather than one grade on one test. One reason for why I disagree with having one test determine if you are awarded a diploma is because there could be a very good student that isn’t a very good test taker. Some people have trouble with taking tests because they can be very stressful. Plus, it is very stressful for a student to think that the standardized test that they are taking is the only way for a student to get a high school diploma. Being stressed can make a student do very poorly throughout the test because they are constantly worrying and second guessing all of their answers. Good students often over think their answers which could then make them get the wrong answers. Psyching yourself out is often a reason for why students don’t do well on tests. Determining whether a student should be given a diploma should be based upon a student’s average GPA from all of the collective courses that they have taken throughout the duration of high school. There are many factors that could determine a student’s performance on a test. A student may have not eaten breakfast. Not eating breakfast could make someone distracted and be thinking about food instead of performing well on the test. Eating well before a test is imperative to having good test performance and the student not being able to do that could affect them to where they didn’t get a high school diploma. Another